Yesterday morning we left the hotel at 5:00am. It was only a ten minute drive to the airport, but in hindsight we should have left earlier. Paul dropped all of us off, and we made it to our gate prior to the time they started boarding, but Paul was the last person to board the plane, and they were paging him in the airport. He had parked our van in the long term parking, took the shuttle to the airport, and then waited in long line for the TSA screening. He already had his boarding pass, and we checked all the luggage while he was parking the van. The flight took off and landed a little early. It was a five hour flight. Six of us were sitting in the same row, and Pop Pop was one row ahead of us. He was fortunate that no one was sitting next to him. They had a service called go go entertainment, which meant that we could access 400+ movies and tv shows through a cell phone, tablet, or laptop. This helped pass the time on the flight. They served us drinks several times, and we had brought food along. One of the kids had put a juice box in the food bag, and I wasn't aware of this. Somehow it got through security! I was very surprised when I discovered it in the bag on the airplane.
After we landed we got our luggage and our rental white Sienna van and then drove to Cabrillo National Monument. We arrived there at about 10:15 and stayed for four hours. During that time Nadia completed the Junior Ranger Badge program. It's her first, but I don't think it will be her last! Ian started it but then fizzled out. We all got in free to the park because Nadia is in fourth grade. Over the course of the four hours we visited the Cabrillo monument, a bunker from WWII, watched three different short movies (one about Cabrillo, one about
grey whales, and one about the animals in the tide pools), visited a light house, explored some tide pools, and attended a living history program about arms and armor used by Spanish soldiers in the 16th century. Ian was hoping to find an octopus when we explore the tide pools. That wish didn't come true (although it could have), but we did find other things like crabs and such.
Next we went to a Chicago style pizza restaurant that is very close to the Airbnb home where we are staying. We had one thin pizza and one deep dish pizza. We brought some leftovers back to our condo. Before checking in we stopped at a grocery store to buy food for the next week for our breakfasts and lunches. I took a picture of Nadia playing Pop Pop in a game of Battleship while waiting for the pizza because it shows the badge she earned. I was amazed that the kids were able to stay up because it was well past their bedtime at home. Oliver went down around 7:30, and the other two went down around 8:15. Nadia is sleeping on a futon in the master bedroom with Paul and I. The boys are sleeping on two twin beds in another bedroom, and Paul's parents have a full size bed in another bedroom. The three bedrooms and one bathroom are upstairs, and downstairs there is a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Before going to bed, I took the kids to a swimming pool and jacuzzi for a quick dip.
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